1. Field of the Disclosure
The disclosure relates to methods and pharmaceutical compositions for treating brain tumors, and methods of screening for compounds that provide improved treatment of brain tumors.
2. Description of Related Art
There is an urgent need for novel therapeutics to treat brain tumors, especially astrocytomas grade IV (also known as glioblastomas multiforme). These tumors progress rapidely through healthy brain parenchyma and resist all current therapeutic approaches, making them one of the most devastating of all cancers. Patients diagnosed with astrocyomas grade IV typically die within a year. Even aggressive therapeutic interventions (i.e., combining surgery, radiotherapy and available chemotherapeutics) extend the life expectancy of these patients by only a few months. All drugs and adjuvants developed to kill astrocytomas (e.g., novel alkylating agents and monoclonal antibodies) have produced minimal therapeutic benefits, if any. Thus, a radically different therapeutic approach needs to be identified and implemented so that we can reliably treat these devastating tumors.
Because of the shortcomings of existing brain cancer treatments, there is a need in the art for improved therapies that provide meaningful therapeutic intervention against brain tumors. In recent years, a number of studies have suggested the existence of receptors activated by the cannabinoid-like compounds: the aminoalkylindoles (AAI). There is a need in the art to identify new compounds that selectively activate AAI receptors. AAI receptors may also be implicated in disease and to use such receptors, alone or as part of a panel of other receptors, to identify and profile the effects of potential therapeutic compounds capable of treating one or other of the many diseases and disorders mediated by AAI receptors.